


somebody that i used to know

by cxlesstial



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Andreil, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, eighties AU, i hate tagging help, renison
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:28:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26516716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cxlesstial/pseuds/cxlesstial
Summary: What the fuck. “What the fuck,” Neil whispers, softly, pinching himself. The pain he felt did nothing to relieve him. He was awake, he was in some - some weird, alien place - oh god, what the fuck? Was this some kind of prank, did Nicky throw this together? Wymack was going to kill them -“Andrew - Andrew, wake up,” Neil says, barely managing to restrain himself from shaking his boyfriend’s shoulder in his panic, remembering just in time that, even in sleep, Andrew didn’t like to be touched unless said toucher had permission. “Andrew, wake up, wake the fuck up -Andrew mumbles something incoherent and probably rude, but Neil doesn’t stop. “Andrew, we’ve been captured by aliens. Or Nicky. Or both.”
Relationships: Allison Reynolds/Renee Walker (All For The Game), Matt Boyd/Danielle "Dan" Wilds, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 11
Kudos: 46





	somebody that i used to know

“How are you still _winning_?” Kevin drags a clenched hand through his dark hair and raises his eyes from the gameboard to stare at his star goalie. Andrew stares back, as unimpressed as usual and making no move to explain himself to his exy-obsessed friend. 

Dan rolls her eyes from her place between Matt and Nicky and throws her game piece at Kevin, and they all watch it bounce off his head. “Take a chill pill, ‘Queen’. It’s just Monopoly.”

“He should have gone bankrupt ten minutes ago!” Kevin argues, clearly not ready to give the subject a break. “The only reason he’s still winning is because Neil is helping him cheat!” 

“Am not!” Neil retorts immediately and narrows his eyes, clutching his cards a little tighter as if he imagined Kevin’s neck there instead. “Be careful, Day. I know my way around money. I’m not afraid of sending you to jail, either.” 

Against his better judgement, Nicky laughs. “Neil, this is the first time you’ve ever even _seen_ a Monopoly board or played the game. You’ve asked, like, fifteen questions in the last five minutes. You sure you’re in the right place to be threatening Kevin?”

“Oh, yeah,” Neil doesn’t hesitate, even smirking a little as he stares his fellow striker down.

Kevin doesn’t hesitate to glower back. “I absolutely _loathe_ you,” he inputs unhelpfully. Neil raises his eyebrows, unmoved.

“God, can we just play the fucking game already?” Aaron breaks in impatiently. “I have better things to do then sit here and hope Kevin demolishes Neil. I was already forced here against my will as it is.” He glances at Nicky, then at Andrew (who’s still gazing at Kevin with a look of content apathy), then sneers back at the rest of the group. 

“Shut up, Aaron,” Neil and Kevin snap at him, but they reluctantly turn back to the game, sending dirty looks at eachother regardless. 

The door jostles a little as it's unlocked, and Allison and Renee step inside, laughing about something Renee had said only seconds before. It takes a moment for them to realize that they had the entire team (sans the freshman) in their suite, but they don’t seem bothered and come join the circle after putting their groceries on the table.The others make room for the two girls immediately, and after a chorus of quiet ‘hellos’ they return to the game.

“What are we doing?” Renee asks. Aaron moves to answer but Matt beats him to it.

“Witnessing Kevin get demolished by Neil and Andrew in Monopoly,” Matt says as he stares down at his game piece, which was still in jail. “It’s actually really entertaining.”

“Understandable, play on.” Allison leans back on her arms and scrutinizes the group, narrowing her eyes as Nicky somehow manages to lose the dice on the carpeted floor. “Nicky, what the fuck.” 

“I’m sorry!” Nicky protests, reaching around Aaron in an attempt to reach for the dice. “Listen, it’s not my fault this stupid dice won’t stay still -”

“It’s 100% your fault, you idiot,” Aaron mutters, handing the dice back. “You suck.” 

“Whatever!” Nicky rolls his eyes as he shakes the dice in his curled hands, making a conscious effort not to launch them somewhere this time. “At least I’m not bankrupt!” He rolls a six and shoots a pointed look at Neil to move his game piece for him. Neil rolls his eyes and with a dramatic sigh obediently moves the battleship six spots up the board and -

“Hey buddy,” Matt smirks at him as most of his teammates erupt into laughter at Nicky’s new predicament. “Looks like you’re stuck in jail with me! Get comfy.”

“I _hate_ this game!” Nicky protests, then glares at them as they continue snickering. “Ugh, stop _laughing_! I hate you guys too!” 

-

Neil yawns quietly, dragging his hands up over his head and arching his back as he squeezes his eyes shut. He could feel Andrew’s gaze on him, but says nothing, hoping that his boyfriend would break the silence before he did. As he opens his eyes he takes a long look over the side of the dorm rooftop, enjoying the sound of Andrew’s quiet breathing and quiet chirping of the South Carolina crickets more than he’d like to admit. 

It’s almost too easy to forget that he’s safe now...well, as safe as a Wesninski could ever be. His father was finally gone forever and the reality of that is still sinking in. He was allowed to continue his life in exy with the one and only Kevin Day - and Andrew, once the blonde midget got his head out of his ass and utilized his full potential. The three of them could be unstoppable. Besides that, though…

He had a _family_. For the first time in his insignificant life he had a group of people that cared about his well-being. People that drove across the country to get him back from the FBI. People who had accepted every small bit of his crazy fucked up past without a moment’s hesitation. It was unbelievable how much that meant to him. He brought his closed fist to his mouth so Andrew wouldn’t see him smiling but the blonde picked up on the small movement immediately.

“Penny for your thoughts, Josten?” Andrew drawled, sounding bored and disinterested per usual. Neil glances at him, dropping the fist and wondering if he should answer honestly. Andrew was never one for anything sappy and Neil really doesn’t feel like getting kicked headfirst off the roof tonight. 

“Just thinking,” Neil answers, a little too fast. “About a lot of things, really. Y’know, life. It’s crazy when you’re not about to die. Makes you put things into perspective.”

Andrew considers that, then begins to search for a cigarette in his pocket. Neil scoots a bit closer so he could light it for the blonde, entranced by the yellow flame as the cig is lit aglow. It leaves a faint wisp of smoke and curls up in the sky. Satisfied, Neil tries to scoot back to his original place but stops when Andrew grasps his wrist. 

Frozen, Neil moves his gaze from the cigarette to Andrew’s hazel eyes. They were hypnotizing, something that had originally drawn Neil to Andrew in the first place. They looked empty and callous, but Neil could see all of the emotion locked away inside. Anger, agony, pain - and smug satisfaction. Neil chalked that bit up to Riko’s defeat; it’s been a long couple of months and they were still slightly in awe of the Raven’s downfall. 

“Yes or no?” Andrew asks, voice so quiet it was almost insignificant in the front of the breeze and Neil has to strain himself to hear. Neil smiles, leaning in closer, tilting his head and closing his eyes. Waiting for the inevitable. 

“It’s always yes with you, Andrew.” 

The kiss on his mouth, insistent and reassuring and _there_ , makes Neil’s toes curl in his shoes and the languid beating of his heart pick up a few. Every kiss with Andrew felt like trekking across unexplored territory, still just as exciting as their first, and Neil feels his heart in his throat every single time. 

“I adore you,” Neil tells Andrew, with complete honesty, as they pull apart. Andrew doesn’t look affected by that statement, but grips Neil’s wrist tighter and pulls Neil back towards him, so their foreheads are pressed together. Neil doesn’t mind Andrew’s silence, knows that Andrew doesn’t always need words to convey his emotions. He knows, with every fiber in his broken, battered body, that Andrew would go to the ends of the world to keep Neil alive, to keep him happy, to keep them _together_.

Neil doesn’t think words _could_ express that. With a grin, he closes his eyes, enjoys the feeling of being close to the most important person in his life. 

They’re back in the dorm rooms later that night, sharing the couch. Neil didn’t know where Kevin or Nicky were - or the rest of his friends, for that matter, but he was perfectly content sitting quietly with Andrew, passing another cig back and forth (Neil _knows_ the rest of them will be on his ass about smoking when they get back, but Neil couldn’t really give a shit at that particular moment). The television was on, something about exy playing on a talk show, but the volume was too low for Neil to make out anything worth listening too and his attention was currently enraptured by the blonde sitting next to him.

“So....what if we were transported back into the eighties?” Neil asks randomly, knowing that Andrew loved these types of weird, impossible questions. Hell, they’d spent a month considering the ins and outs of the zombie apocalypse. “Y’know what I mean, right? The retro, aesthetic kind. Like Tron.” 

“Tron 1982 or 2010?”

“1982,” Neil has to smile at that, remembering the random movies Matt and Dan had them ( _forced them,_ more like) marathon after they had dealt with the impending storm of Riko’s supposed “suicide”. They’d watched older movies, newer movies, and had even marathoned the whole of George Romero’s zombie films. 

Aaron had complained at first, per usual, and Kevin and Andrew made their distance from the upperclassmen known (more than a bit subtly), but as time bled on they finally cut the shit - _especially_ when the freshman arrived for summer training. Needless to say, they spent a lot of time in Matt’s dorm room this summer, renting movies and fighting over who sat where. 

A show that Allison had rented and popped in one night, a 1982 movie called Tron, looked boring to everyone at first - but they were quickly entranced as a computer hacker gets zapped into the digital world and has to fight a corrupt, power-hungry, malfunctioning program. Even for its early use of CGI, and the funky visuals, they were hooked and scoured the internet for it’s sequel as soon as the credits rolled. 

Andrew takes the cigarette from Neil’s outstretched fingers, seemingly pondering the question. “Life would be the same,” he says after a couple beats silence. “I’d still hate you just as much,” he promises, unconcerned as always with the words tumbling from his lips. 

Neil laughs. “You’re a terrible liar. What number are we even on now?” 

“Five hundred and sixty seven. Sixty eight if you keep it up,” Andrew lets his head fall back onto the couch cushions comfortably, and Neil shakes his head fondly as he watches him. 

-

He must have fallen asleep on the couch, because he feels cramped and the throw pillows Nicky bought for the furniture did absolutely _nothing_ to help his neck. He rubs his face, letting a jaw shattering yawn escape, before finally letting his eyes open and adjust to the - 

Neil feels his hands fall from his head to his knees as he stares, disbelieving, at his living room. The room was painted _purple_ instead of that ugly brown that the school _still_ wouldn’t let them paint over, the television had shrunk into a smaller version, propped up across from Neil on a cabinet. The floor was tiled instead of carpeted, white with black filling the cracks. On the coffee table in front of the couch (which was now a velvety, soft on the eyes pale color that Neil couldn’t quite place in his shock) sat a honest to god _record player,_ and Neil skims the titles with an increasing sense of panic. Tom Petty, Whitney Houston, David Bowie -

What the fuck. “What the fuck,” Neil whispers, softly, pinching himself. The pain he felt did nothing to relieve him. He was awake, he was in some - some weird, alien place - oh god, what the _fuck_? Was this some kind of prank, did Nicky throw this together? Wymack was going to _kill_ them - 

“Andrew - _Andrew,_ wake up,” Neil says, barely managing to restrain himself from shaking his boyfriend’s shoulder in his panic, remembering just in time that, even in sleep, Andrew didn’t like to be touched unless said toucher had permission. “Andrew, _wake_ _up_ , wake the fuck up -

Andrew mumbles something incoherent and probably rude, but Neil doesn’t stop. “Andrew, we’ve been captured by aliens. Or Nicky. Or both.”

“The fuck are you saying?” Andrew _finally_ opens his eyes, and instantly freezes, exhausted hazel eyes flitting across the entire room in what must be shock, landing back on Neil’s equally shocked expression. “I don’t remember taking drugs last night, Josten. What the fuck is going on?”

“I don’t know! I fell asleep last night and I woke up literally two minutes ago and - 

Neil’s panicked sentence falls short as Andrew stands suddenly, limbs popping from disuse, and makes his way towards the door to the hallway. Incredibly confused but not willing to get left behind, Neil follows as Andrew gets the door open. 

Any last semblance of normalcy that Neil was still trying to desperately cling too was thrown out the window as they stare down the quiet hallway. The tile followed them out, stretching down the hallway in both directions, and was also painted purple. The doors were the only things that were the same, the dark brown oak with curved numbers indicating the different dorm rooms, but it brings no comfort to Neil’s frazzled mind. 

This wasn’t some stupid prank from Nicky unless for some odd reason everyone in the dorms was in on it, and Neil highly doubted Nicky had that much power over people to do an entire paint job and a _floor_ change and a - 

“Matt, Dan -” Neil stumbles towards the door opposite the one they’d just exited, knocking once, twice, then fumbling for the door handle and twisting desperately. “Matt, Dan! Allison! Renee! Kevin! _Anyone_ -

“Neil!” a feminine voice exclaims, and Neil lets go of the door handle like it’d burned him as it clicks open and Dan’s brown complexion appears in the frame, worried dark eyes bouncing from him to Andrew. “Oh my god, Matt, it’s Neil, and Andrew -

“Let them in!” Matt snaps from farther in the dorm room, and Dan steps backwards and ushers them inside. Andrew follows behind Neil as he steps inside the room, and. Wow. It’s exactly like the room he just left, the spacing and placement of the objects was a little different, but pretty much exactly the same. Neil locks eyes with Matt, who’s pulling at his curly black hair and pacing back and forth. “Oh, thank fuck you two are alright, what the hell is going _on_ -

“We don’t know!” Neil repeats, feeling his throat tighten almost painfully as he staggers further inside, taking a seat on the arm of the couch and traces his eyes over the black lines in the tiled floor. “We just - woke up? And it was all like, retro and -

His stomach freezes and he cuts himself off, glancing up at Andrew, who stared back at him with an unreadable expression. He - they - _no_ , _they couldn’t be_ -

He’s saved from explaining himself and his sudden silence as there’s more frantic knocking on the door, and Dan runs forward to answer it. Renee and Allison are on the other side, meaning a total of six were found out of the nine of them. Allison, not out of character at all, has an explosion of questions that no one can answer, while Renee is pale and wide-eyed and very silent. Neil’s waiting for the other three, and when they don’t arrive he breaks the confused conversation with a hurried “Where’s Nicky, Kevin, and Aaron?”

“Kevin went to the court to practice last night, and, um, _fuck_ \- Nicky said something about Eden’s Twilight -

“They went to fucking _Columbia_? Without Andrew, Kevin, or Neil?” Allison asks, disbelieving. “Or us? Why? What’d they do, take Andrew’s car?” 

“I let them take it, Roland said it was urgent,” Andrew replies without missing a beat. “Nicky’s the only one I trust not to fuck up my car, and Aaron wouldn’t shut up until I let him go.”

“Great. Nope, this is great. We’re divided, we’re in some sort of alternate fucking reality where Andrew trusts Nicky and Aaron to go to Columbia _by themselves_ , and for some new reason I’m not sure of but we’re probably not going to get an answer to - lets _Kevin_ go to the court by himself, and - _what the fuck_ is happening with our dorm?” Matt says this all very fast, resuming his pacing. Neil blinks at his taller friend and forces his breathing, which was slowly going into overdrive, to calm again. Come on, he’s been in worse situations, _way worse_ situations. Take stock and make a plan.

“Okay. Um. We find everybody, and. Fuck, I don’t know. Figure out what’s going on?” Neil asks, reaching for the phone he usually kept in his back pocket, but patted nothing but his own jeans. Slightly more confused, Neil reaches further into his pockets and finds nothing at all. “I don’t have my phone,” he says, feeling very dumb, but his friends’ suddenly panicked expressions mirrored his as they grabbed their own clothes told him that they were out of luck, too. 

“It feels like we’ve gone back in time,” Renee murmurs as she studies Matt and Aaron’s dorm room. “Record players? And now we don’t have cell phones? And this - this _aesthetic_ , it reminds me of something. Like a movie we watched.”

“Tron,” Andrew and Neil say at the same time, Neil slightly more agitated. Andrew was doing a great job of keeping his calm facade, but Neil met his eyes and saw that he was just as confused as any of them - and he hated that. Being confused. Andrew wanted answers. Neil swallows, feeling like this was all his fault for some weird, twisted reason. “Andrew and I - we were talking last night, about. About going back to this 80’s retro time. Like in Tron.”

“You what -

“It was just a conversation topic!” Neil continues, interrupting Dan, feeling the need to explain himself. _Was this my fault?_ “I wasn’t - _fuck_ \- expecting any shit like this to _happen_? We’ve talked about the zombie apocalypse fifty million times and I’ve never had some asshole try to bite my head off...well, except for Riko, and...maybe my father, but _besides them_ -

“Neil! Neil, stop. Deep breaths, man,” Matt says, slinging an arm around his shoulder, and Neil exhales, squeezing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose. “We’re okay. Just. Fuck, let’s just find the others, then we’ll figure out what to do,” Matt gets out, looking at his friends and his girlfriend with a solemn expression. Dan nods, turning back into their leader within a second. At least _that_ hadn’t changed.

“Kevin first, then, cause he’s closer,” Allison walks back towards the door, hesitantly looking back down at the handle like it would bite her hand off. Reluctantly opening it, she disappears back into the hallway, and the rest follow, Matt’s arm slipping from Neil’s shoulders but never straying far. Neil shoots him a grateful glance and falls back to Andrew, who was trailing behind.

They take the stairs quickly, noticing that the _entire_ dorm is just the same as their hallway a few floors up. People are emerging from their rooms, and Neil _recognizes_ them, people from the football team, the soccer team, etc - it’s just. One thing was different. 

They weren’t confused. They were milling around, having conversations, laughing - and that wasn’t all of it. Their clothes were different. The way they talked, the way their _hair_ was styled -

“We’re out of place,” Dan remarks quietly as a group of girls - (volleyball players?) shoot Neil’s group a confused look. “Look at them! They talk like - 

“They’re from here,” Renee realizes. “And we’re not.”

“Gee, Ren, what was your first guess -

“ _No_ , that’s not - listen. I’m not an English major, but I have read some science fiction stories. I think we might be in some alternate reality or something.” Renee explains as she walks. “I don’t know _how_ , or why, or -

“How the fuck did we manage to cross _realities_ ,” Matt declares, completely and utterly nonplussed. “Seriously. I do not have enough brain cells for this.” 

“I thought the weirdest thing in my life was the mafia exy.” Allison agrees as they finally reach the bottom level. “Clearly shit can still get weirder.”

“Let’s just find the others,” Neil sighs as he pushes forward, past his friends to the door. “Maybe things will look up when we get outside…oh.” He opens the door and feels his mouth fall open. Yet again. The Sun. Wasn’t. Yellow.

Well, nevermind. That was a lie. The Sun _was_ yellow. The sky was just a dark blue, and closer to the Sun it turned purple, giving the Sun itself a purple inflection. There were _stars_ out, even though Neil could’ve sworn that it was still early morning, and there were palm trees. Everywhere. This was _South Carolina,_ not fucking Florida. Neil swallowed and surveyed his surroundings, aware that everyone had come to a stop around him and was gaping just like he was. 

The city itself was _neon_ , and he didn’t mean that word lightly. Everything was brightly colored and it was _beautiful_ , pink and purple and blue and orange and red and so _colorful_ compared to what he was used too. There were milkshake shops, arcades, and _record shops_ , that was new - and the cars parked in the parking lot were different. _Older_. Neil didn’t know much about cars, but he knew that the ones from his - _their_ time were sleeker, had a better paint job. Everything here, from the music, the shops, the cars, even the _people_ \- it was retro. 

“It’s gorgeous,” Allison breaks the silence first, and the others startle at her words. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I’m. Wow,” Matt says, focus bouncing from one thing to another and never pausing. Neil wished he had about fifty more eyes. Jesus Christ. _How_ did they get into this mess?

“Ohhhhhh _kay_ , well, this was weird! Yeah. Okay. Anyway, moving on from all this shit, Kevin. Then Aaron and Nicky, remember?” Dan claps twice, to get them back on track.

“Hold on,” Renee holds a hand up, pausing them again. “We’re in an 80’s reality. Does exy even _exist_?” 

That stumps them for about five seconds before Dan narrows her eyes. “What are you saying?” 

“Kevin went to the court to practice last night, yes?” Renee looks sideways at Andrew, who gives a minuscule nod of confirmation. “If exy doesn’t exist - 

“No, because if we went back in time, wouldn’t that mean everyone here wouldn’t exist either?” Allison asks, arching her eyebrows. “I recognized people in the dorms. I _know_ them. They’re from _our time_ , only they’re different cause’ they’re from here. My point is, everything is different, but... exactly the same.”

“ _Ughhhhhhhh_ this is so confusing!” Matt throws his hands up. “Let’s just get to the court and hope Kevin’s there, _then_ we figure out what the fuck to do.”

“What if he’s not?” Dan rubs her arms anxiously. “What if something happened to him? What if -

“Stop asking questions, Dan, you’re freaking me out,” Allison rubs her friend’s shoulder, and Dan leans into it immediately. “We’ll figure it out, okay? We’ll take Matt’s truck.” 

The upperclassmen start towards Matt’s vehicle, which is a different color and a different truck altogether, but for some reason has the same trademark license plate. Andrew holds back, and Neil stays with him, still taking in the scene and their new predicament. What a mess they’d gotten themselves into, and Neil couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all his fault. 

“Where the fuck _are_ we,” Andrew murmurs in German, and Neil sighs, giving it his best shot even though he still had no clue. He looks at his surroundings, the retro aesthetic, and remembers their conversation from the night before.

“The eighties? I don’t know, but. It looks a lot like what I’d envisioned of when we were talking last night, so. That’s what I’m guessing,” Neil murmurs back, also in German. The upperclassmen were looking back at them, confused on why they weren’t following, but Neil’s content to wait. He wouldn’t go anywhere without Andrew, not now.

Andrew exhales sharply, finally revealing his shock in more than face expressions or eye gestures. 

Not even Andrew Minyard could be apathetic about the eighties - or wherever the fuck they were.

Go fucking figure. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii omg so this is based off an instagram video edit that i!! made!! i am l3veless!! hey!! back in march when quarantine was just beginning! if u guys wanna watch it the link is:
> 
> https://www.instagram.com/p/B-X0NAlJbAn/
> 
> i really don't know if im going to continue this but i adore this concept so so much


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